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2/07/2018

ERGP: PRIVATE SECTOR TO GET PRIORITY ATTENTION –OSINBAJO

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has
assured that the Federal Government would give priority attention to the
Nigerian private sector in an effort to achieve the objectives of the Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

Osinbajo who reaffirmed
government’s commitment to partner and work with the private sector to achieve
the economic objectives of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, gave
the assurance at the inauguration of the Core Working Teams for ERGP Focus Labs
at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The four teams comprised
20 persons per lab and 80 participants in all.

According to the Vice President,
“our administration fully recognises that the private sector ought to be the
driver of the economy, mobilising and deploying the bulk of capital required to
deliver growth and prosperity; and the role of government should essentially be
to create the environment for the private sector to thrive.”

He noted that the principle on
which the ERGP focus labs were designed was one that creates enabling
environment for the private sector, adding that government was committed to the
principle.

He said: “I want all of us who
will be participating in these labs to see this as central. We want to listen
to what investors are saying; we want to listen to what the private sector is
saying; I want to see in what ways we can bend over backwards to accommodate
what they are saying so that we can achieve our objectives.”

Osinbajo further explained that
the ERGP Focus Labs were meant to bring together private sector and public
sector participants as well as potential investors to think through the
implementation of the specific areas of focus for the labs, including
agriculture and transportation; manufacturing and processing; and power and
gas.

He said the labs, which would be
launched in March, were targeted at achieving the ERGP’s goals of achieving 7
per cent growth by 2020 and of creating jobs.

Presenting the focus labs,
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, recalled
that the Buhari administration inherited a challenged economy but through
deliberate policies was able to arrest the slide and put the economy back on
the path of growth.

Udoma said the sector-specific
focus labs were being rolled out to provide the private sector the needed
leverage to drive the economy to enable it attain the targeted 7 per cent
growth.

He added that the focus labs
would be kick-started with three selected areas, “reflecting our priorities of
the ERGP. We are starting in agriculture and transportation, manufacturing and
processing, power and gas supply,” he stated, adding that the pre-lab phase
started on January 15 and would run till March 4. He explained that the main
labs would run from March 5 till April 15 after which there would be post-lab.

Udoma said the main objective of
the labs was to get new investments for critical projects to create jobs. “We
have a target of 15 million jobs and we must achieve it and would be used to
resolve complex inter-agency problems that inhibit private sector investment.”

He said government would retain
the Malaysian firm, Pemanda Associates, which ran similar labs in Malaysia to
support the implementation of the focus labs.

“They are supporting us; they are
not running it for us,” he said, pointing out that the labs would be run by an
implementation unit in the Ministry of Budget and Planning.

Udoma said the president would be
at the head of the structure and would be reported to while the Central
Steering Committee would be chaired by the Minister of Budget and Planning.

The Ministers of Agriculture,
Transportation, Industry, Trade and Investment, Mines and Steel Development,
Finance, Power, Works and Housing, Justice, Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, representatives of the president and that of the vice president and
the coordinator of the labs would be members of the Central Steering Committee.

Others who spoke at the event
were the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Budget and Planning, Samson Adewale.

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